Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Oct 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aspc..375..191w&link_type=abstract
From Z-Machines to ALMA: (Sub)Millimeter Spectroscopy of Galaxies ASP Conference Series, Vol. 375, proceedings of the conference
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is a large international telescope project under construction in northern Chile on a site at Chajnantor of 5 km elevation. The excellent atmospheric transmission at that site in the millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelength ranges will allow ALMA to provide detailed images of the sources of the the cosmic microwave background and the cosmic far-infrared background radiation, near the wavelengths of the two strongest peaks in the spectral energy distribution of the universe. ALMA's images will contain all of the flux in the imaged field through the use of two parts: (1) the ``12 m Array'', composed of up to 64 12 m antennas that can be placed on 186 different stations for baselines up to 18 km (see Table~1), and (2) the ``Atacama Compact Array'' (ACA), which consists of 12 7 m telescopes placed in compact configurations and four 12 m telescopes for measuring source total power. At the shortest planned wavelength (λ =0.3 mm) and longest baseline, the angular resolution will be 0.004 arcsec. The receivers use superconducting (SIS) mixers, which-- in combination with the excellent site transparency and the large array collecting area-- will provide sensitivity at 1 mm wavelength of 1 mJy in a few seconds for average atmospheric conditions; this is more than two orders of magnitude better than any array operating today. At first light for the ALMA project, the six highest priority receiver bands will be installed, each observing both polarizations with a bandwidth of 8 GHz.
ALMA is an equal partnership between Europe and North America, in cooperation with the Republic of Chile, and is funded in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), and in Europe by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and Spain. In the bilateral project, ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), and on behalf of Europe by ESO. In addition, Japan has also entered the ALMA project.
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